WHERE THE RAIN IS BORN – Writings About Kerala, by Anita Nair

Among the top bestselling authors of fictional writing, the most famous is Anita Nair, who has earned the fame being India’s well known author of many novels. She was working as the creative director of an advertising agency in Bangalore, when she wrote her first book. She lives in Bangalore and is an Indian English-language writer, who was born in Shornur (Palakkad district of Kerala). Anita Nair was educated in Madras before returning to Kerala, where she gained a BA in English Language and Literature. Her sixth novel is a historical and geographical novel about a Somalian trader, who visited Malabar in 1659 AD. Her official website http://www.anitanair.net/ also features few highly interesting and must read humour and travelogues.

Where the rain is born– in this anthology writers as diverse as Arundhati Roy, Ramachandra Guha, O.V. Vijayan, Vaikkom Mohammad Basheer and Kamala Das combine to bring alive the languid beauty and charged social and political ethos of this tiny state, which has been listed as one of the top fifty holiday destinations in the world. Changing lifestyles and the gradual erosion of past values and traditions in favour of a seemingly modern, yet paradoxically conservative society engage the interest of several of the writers featured in this collection. The southernmost part of India was born, it is said, when the mighty Parasurama (sixth avatar of Vishnu), threw his battle axe to carve out the territory that would henceforth be his.